About Our Orchestra Weston Youth Orchestra was established in 1958 to provide an environment for young musicians to improve their performance skills through playing in an orchestra. Many former members have gone on to forge careers within the world of music, including conducting and performing with the world’s top orchestras, arranging and composing music as well as playing for West End shows. In 2010 Nigel Hess, a former orchestra member and prominent composer of television and film scores, became the orchestra’s president. We are run solely by volunteers, and are a self-funding organisation whose running costs are paid for by public performances and annual membership fees. On average we perform four full concerts each year. Repertoire for these is primarily sourced from our own library. Please visit our website and like us on Facebook to find out more about us: www.westonyouthorchestra.org.uk www.facebook.com/westonyouthorchestra Obituaries Tom Philpott Earlier this year one of the orchestra’s most valuable supporters sadly passed away. Tom was involved with WYO for many years; firstly as a parent of a member, then latterly he took on the role of the orchestra’s treasurer. He remained in this role for a number of years, whilst his wife Sue acted as secretary, until he retired in 2009. His support of WYO, and his help and encouragement to its members, will be greatly missed. Frances Dewar Frances Dewar was a violinist, and later leader, of the orchestra in the 1980s. She went on to study violin at the Royal College of Music, where she won all the chamber music prizes and gave a recital with her quartet on Classic FM. She completed her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, gaining a distinction in her postgraduate diploma. She gave concerto performances throughout the UK and in France, Germany and Poland, and was a violinist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. We are sorry to hear that she passed away this Summer after a long battle with cancer. Welcome to our October Concert Director: Dennis Cole MBE President: Nigel Hess Conductor: Diane Parfitt Leader: Toby Mitchell Accompanist: John Skeen The orchestra would like to thank Pat Gehler for her generous donation in August which funded our new music stands. Next Concert Friday 13th December 7.00pm Christmas Concert St. Paul’s Church Walliscote Road Weston-super-Mare Programme Notes – First Half L’Arlesienne Suite – Georges Bizet Fantasy for Clarinet – Malcolm Arnold The L’Arlesienne Suites were composed as incidental music for the play of the Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold was a prolific English composer, whose works included same name by Alphonse Daudet. The play was not well received by audiences, and nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral closed after only 21 performances, but Bizet reworked the material into two suites music and music for brass band and wind band. He also wrote extensively for the for full symphony orchestra. Tonight’s performance features two movements from theatre, with five ballets. His Fantasy for Clarinet was commissioned by the City of suite number one, and the popular “Farandole” from suite number two. The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for the Birmingham International Wind recurring “March of the Kings” theme can be heard in both suites, with changes in Competition and was first performed in May 1966. tonality and tempo creating variation. In suite number one, “Carillon” features a repeating bell-tone pattern mimicking a peal of church bells, and the “Minuetto” is exactly that; a joyful dance movement. “Farandole” from suite number two might Selections from Lord of the Dance – Ronan Hardiman be recognisable to younger audience members as a rock version is used in the Hardiman was born in Dublin in 1961. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, video game “Catherine”. but on leaving worked as a clerk at the Bank of Ireland for the next 12 years. In 1990 he resigned from his job and began composing material based on Irish traditions for radio and television, including commercials for Guinness and the Irish Overture to The Barber of Seville – Gioachino Rossini National Lottery. He composed the soundtrack to Lord of the Dance for Michael This overture to the comic opera has all the features you would expect from Flatley in 1996 and it quickly became an international hit. Rossini: A grand fanfare opening, dialogue between the strings and wind instruments, tonic-dominant harmony, and of course the “Rossini Rocket”; the drawn out crescendo that Rossini was renowned for. A long coda brings the overture to a close leaving the opera-going audience full of anticipation for what they are about to see. Weston Festival of Music & Drama 2020 Suite in A Minor – Georg Philipp Telemann The “Air à l’Italien” is a baroque operatic aria in Italian ternery form. The Cantabile Weston Festival of Music and Drama is a competitive music festival first part, with its many unexpected harmonic twists, is followed by a contrasting with classes for all age groups from 7 years to adult that takes place virtuoso middle section. “Réjouissance” features joyful melodies passed between each May. the strings and the soloist, as well as contrasting stepwise passage work and arpeggios. Entries to the 2020 festival will open later this year. In the meantime, please visit our website to find out more about us. Selections from La La Land– Justin Hurwitz La La Land is a 2016 Oscar-winning American romantic comedy-drama musical film www.wfmd.org.uk written and directed by Damien Chazelle. It stars Ryan Gosling as a jazz pianist and [email protected] Emma Stone as an aspiring actress, who meet and fall in love while pursuing their dreams in Los Angeles. This arrangement features the most iconic songs from the film; “Mia & Sebastian's Theme”, “Another Day of Sun”, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”, and “City of Stars”. Programme Notes – Second Half Suite from Pirates of the Caribbean – Klaus Badelt Swan Lake Suite – Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky This suite contains brings together extracts of music from the film which are Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is one of the best-known ballets of all time, but was not chosen for their variety of tempo and character, rather than preservation of the well received in his lifetime. It was also probably one of the first ballets to use sequences of events from the film. Almost every section of the work includes a recurring themes to represent characters and situations. The haunting Swan theme version of one or two themes. “Fog Bound” begins with a sailor's jig, has a quiet is first heard in the opening “Scene”. The “Valse” conjures up a festive atmosphere section suggesting the sounds of buoy's bobbing in the sea, then a menacing bit as it is used in birthday celebrations in the Ballet. “Dance of the Swans” is one of which introduces the main theme, followed by a quiet ending. “The Medallion the most used ballet set pieces. “Czardas”, a Hungarian Dance, is taken from Act III Calls” begins softly, and then presents the heroic theme which pervades the whole of the ballet, which is set at a grand ball. The guests perform several dances of suite. “To the Pirate's Cave” has a choppy, dramatic, driving rhythm suitable for a differing styles, this being one of them. The atmosphere gets darker throughout chase scene. “The Black Pearl” makes the most of the main theme; menacing and the ball bringing the act to a dramatic end. fast. “One Last Shot” opens slowly and returns to the jig theme of the opening. “He's a Pirate” ends the medley with a grand reinstatement of the main theme. Easy Winners – Scott Joplin Joplin was an American composer, born into a family of railway labourers in Arkansas in 1868. He began his career as a piano teacher in Missouri, and later began composing Ragtimes. His first published composition was the “Maple Leaf The Orchestra: Rag”. Joplin never acheived a great level of success in his lifetime, nor financial stability. The scores to his opera were confiscated by baliffs, and he died aged just 1st Violin Viola Oboe 48 whilst confined to a mental institution. In the 1970s his music was rediscovered, Toby Mitchell (leader) Maria Parfitt Archie Harris and featured in many films and albums. He was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Luke Curran Anna Whiting prize in 1976. “Easy Winners” was composed in 1901, and is a reference to Maisie Bartlett Cello athletes who win a sporting event without difficulty. Amelia Ford George Rabin Clarinet Andrew Barrington Charlie Mitchell Chloe Phipps Dennis Cole Anne Tyler Laura Baker Selections from Fiddler on the Roof – Jerry Bock Tamsin Barrington Alyson Medley Fiddler on the Roof is a 1960s musical about life for Jews in rural Russia in the early Steph Ball Trumpet 1900s. It centres on Tevye, a poor philosophical village milkman, who explains that Double Bass Sarah Alsop their lives are “as precarious as the perch of a fiddler on a roof”. Determined to 2nd Violin Michelle Stanley Ophelia Buckton find good husbands for his five daughters, he consults the traditional matchmaker Peter Skeen and also has a word with God. The songs in our medley tonight include “If I Were a Sophie Gardner Flute Piano Rich Man”, “Matchmaker”, “Sunrise, Sunset”, and “To Life!”. Jess Lee Maisie Slingsby John Skeen Sophia Bardi Vicky Lee Xu Yi Lim Lydia Cashmore Percussion Sam Davey Matilda Higgins John Skeen Jasmine Puah Presley Fuller Ben Doswell Emma Hanlon Yin Tian Lim FIRST HALF SECOND HALF L’Arlesienne Suite Bizet Swan Lake Suite Tchaikovsky I.